I am an Ironman! Well...half an Ironman! I finished Oceanside in 6 hours and 21 minutes...I did not get eaten by a shark, and I did not crash my bike.
My race day started at 4:45am...waking up...eating a delicious breakfast cookie...making some last minute preparations...and riding a half mile to the transition zone. It was fun and festive ... meeting new people ... especially the lone 40-year old guy racked with the 30-34 year old women. We think he was lost ... or very very clever. At 7, we sprayed ourselves down, squeezed into our wetsuits, and headed to the water. As I bobbed about in the harbor waiting for the starting horn, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" was playing loudly enough to wake those neighbors who had managed to sleep through the bull horn announcements starting at 4:30 a.m. I felt oddly calm as the horn went off, Eminem's poetic words ringing through my head for the next 40 minutes. I was even amazingly calm when the men's group behind us were let loose and I got an up-close and personal reenactment of spawning salmon, thanks to some over-aggressive men who like to swim over others rather than around them. If you can pick me out in the picture below, I am dang impressed (I'm wearing the yellow swim cap).
Back at the boat harbor, strong-armed servicemen from nearby Camp Pendleton pulled us up the boat ramp and I ran into my transition. I threw in some liquids to wash out the salt, grabbed my helmet, sunglasses, race belt, and threw on my shoes. I was feeling great on the bike. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed looking around at my fellow triathletes. A word of advice to any of you considering this sport...stay away from the white one-piece suits. This may seem obvious to us girls, but a big guy flew past me on the bike, soaking wet from the swim, and as see-through as if his only covering was sunblock. Not exactly the scenery I was expecting...there are rules against public nudity, but apparently his see-through suit is just fine. This pic is like a "Where's Waldo" in transition one...but I think you all can spot me.
The bike course was great...we rode through Camp Pendleton (oorah!) and had a couple of big hills and some wind just to make it fun. My favorite thing was the "Tank Crossing" signage. All-in-all it was really pretty and my 3 hours and twenty minutes on the bike just flew by. Before I knew it, I was spinning back into transition. You can check out my cute spandex-bedecked backside below. I surprised my support crew by coming in early and they managed to get this pic.
I have some pretty good stories about peeing on the bike (not my personal stories), that I will be happy to share with you sometime, but let's just let it be said that I cannot go while riding my bike, and so I used transition 2 to take care of that business. I knew I just had 13.1 miles to go, and if I could get through the next couple of hours, I would be done! I took it easy...walking through the aid stations and enjoying the ocean breeze and coke (I was on vacation after all). I had a bunch of tri-friends on course, so I passed the time looking for them and cheering as they passed. After an hour, I hit the turn-around and knew I was home-free...6 miles to go! And then finally...finally...the finish line!
It was a great feeling to cross the line and hear my name announced (the Australian accent of the emcee made it even more special)! I spotted my mom and her giant flock of balloons easily. It was really a great day and I felt awesome the whole time. So awesome that I celebrated with a big cheeseburger and two baskets of fries.
Thanks friends and family for supporting my crazy hobby! Seriously...if you had told me 10 years ago that I would swim in the ocean, ride a fancy bike, and run in spandex in front of strangers, I wouldn't have believed you. But I'm so grateful for a strong body...there were so many amputee athletes in this race...just watching them persevere through the pain made me so thankful for what I can do.
My race day started at 4:45am...waking up...eating a delicious breakfast cookie...making some last minute preparations...and riding a half mile to the transition zone. It was fun and festive ... meeting new people ... especially the lone 40-year old guy racked with the 30-34 year old women. We think he was lost ... or very very clever. At 7, we sprayed ourselves down, squeezed into our wetsuits, and headed to the water. As I bobbed about in the harbor waiting for the starting horn, Eminem's "Lose Yourself" was playing loudly enough to wake those neighbors who had managed to sleep through the bull horn announcements starting at 4:30 a.m. I felt oddly calm as the horn went off, Eminem's poetic words ringing through my head for the next 40 minutes. I was even amazingly calm when the men's group behind us were let loose and I got an up-close and personal reenactment of spawning salmon, thanks to some over-aggressive men who like to swim over others rather than around them. If you can pick me out in the picture below, I am dang impressed (I'm wearing the yellow swim cap).
Back at the boat harbor, strong-armed servicemen from nearby Camp Pendleton pulled us up the boat ramp and I ran into my transition. I threw in some liquids to wash out the salt, grabbed my helmet, sunglasses, race belt, and threw on my shoes. I was feeling great on the bike. It was a beautiful day, and I enjoyed looking around at my fellow triathletes. A word of advice to any of you considering this sport...stay away from the white one-piece suits. This may seem obvious to us girls, but a big guy flew past me on the bike, soaking wet from the swim, and as see-through as if his only covering was sunblock. Not exactly the scenery I was expecting...there are rules against public nudity, but apparently his see-through suit is just fine. This pic is like a "Where's Waldo" in transition one...but I think you all can spot me.
The bike course was great...we rode through Camp Pendleton (oorah!) and had a couple of big hills and some wind just to make it fun. My favorite thing was the "Tank Crossing" signage. All-in-all it was really pretty and my 3 hours and twenty minutes on the bike just flew by. Before I knew it, I was spinning back into transition. You can check out my cute spandex-bedecked backside below. I surprised my support crew by coming in early and they managed to get this pic.I have some pretty good stories about peeing on the bike (not my personal stories), that I will be happy to share with you sometime, but let's just let it be said that I cannot go while riding my bike, and so I used transition 2 to take care of that business. I knew I just had 13.1 miles to go, and if I could get through the next couple of hours, I would be done! I took it easy...walking through the aid stations and enjoying the ocean breeze and coke (I was on vacation after all). I had a bunch of tri-friends on course, so I passed the time looking for them and cheering as they passed. After an hour, I hit the turn-around and knew I was home-free...6 miles to go! And then finally...finally...the finish line!It was a great feeling to cross the line and hear my name announced (the Australian accent of the emcee made it even more special)! I spotted my mom and her giant flock of balloons easily. It was really a great day and I felt awesome the whole time. So awesome that I celebrated with a big cheeseburger and two baskets of fries.Thanks friends and family for supporting my crazy hobby! Seriously...if you had told me 10 years ago that I would swim in the ocean, ride a fancy bike, and run in spandex in front of strangers, I wouldn't have believed you. But I'm so grateful for a strong body...there were so many amputee athletes in this race...just watching them persevere through the pain made me so thankful for what I can do.
